Study author called the total “so large as to be almost incomprehensible”

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $5 trillion and counting, according to an independent analysis conducted by a political science professor at Brown University.

The calculations by Dr. Neta Crawford extend beyond the typical accounting of overseas contingency operations for the Defense and State Departments, which amounts to $1.7 trillion through 2016, according to her report issued late last week.

Crawford also tabulated base and future budgets for the Defense Department, along with war-related Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs spending, which ballooned as the wars escalated and troops rotated home with injuries.

The estimate includes budget requests in 2017 for operations in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama has slowed troop reduction this year, and in Syria and Iraq, where airstrikes pound Islamic State group positions ahead of operations in Mosul and elsewhere to retake territory from the terror organization.